It Didn’t Have to Be This Way

As the racist billionaire Donald Trump is sworn in as the US President we should remember – it didn’t have to be this way. Bernie Sanders beat Trump convincingly in the polls. Trump attracted fewer votes than the failed Republican candidate of 2012. He lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes.

Had Sanders won the nomination – we may well be now celebrating the election of a socialist president.

From this we should draw hope. Donald Trump didn’t inspire a hate fueled uprising, but managed to limp over the finish line because of Clinton’s dead heart, status quo candidacy. This desperate, depressing situation has arisen because her establishment bid gave the majority nothing to vote for.

The next few years will be long, difficult and terrifying. But they will also be a time of opportunity. With the centre ground fatally undermined and the right on the rise – our task becomes two fold.

First we must build an inspiring, 21st century politics that becomes the new common sense. A politics that speaks to people’s concerns and makes a concrete difference in their daily lives. An innovative, novel politics that solves seemingly intractable problems. One that opens up a new horizons of possibility and hope.

At the same time, we must identify the enemy. We must blame the bankers, bosses and CEOs who line their pockets and leave misery in their wake. We must call out the establishment politicians who let them do it. We must reveal Donald Trump and Nigel Farage for what they really are – members of the economic elite who spread lies and hatred to cover their own backs.

2017 has to be the year we really take back control, and The World Transformed will do everything it can to make that happen.